thirst wrote:I haven’t had Korean teas other than those from TG, so I cannot say much at all about Korean teas, but I can say that even their Korean tea that is not »sencha-style« reminds me of the Japanese teas I’ve had (also only from TG). Steamed-tamaryokucha-style? (TG’s tamaryokucha is pan-fired).

Hooo. Quoting myself here. I really thought their Seogwang (not Seogwang Sencha) was steamed, because it reminded me of Japanese teas I’ve had in the past, but it became apparent to me that it’s pretty different when having sencha at the same time. Just haven’t had any of the latter for a while.

The Japanese learned how to make tea from the Chinese a thousand years ago...now you guys are saying radioactive Japanese teas are safer than the Chinese one (I'm no Chinese)

Way of making Sencha, I don't know who invented..but if you talk about steamed greens, China's En Shi Yu Lu is the one. Also there's Jing Shan Cha from Zhejiang province (very hard to find). Korean greens are basically pan-fried, so follows that of Chinese style.

In Korea, coffee replaced tea drinking for as long as I can remember, but still expensive because the very teas are drunk by heavy followers of Buddhists and old people. The development of Korean tea is on-the-go, Korean tea drinkers and producers are very aware of little proportion in the market compared to Chinese & Japanese ones.

Korea once was the most tea drinking nation a thousand years ago, before confucius kingdom called Chosun was founded, during (and up to now) that period, the tea tradition had been kept by buddhists and exiled scholars near Mt. Jiri